Kenya Defense Forces Volleyball Club

Kenya Defense Forces volleyball club was formed in 1994 following the merger of all the formation of Forces clubs like Moi Airbase, Kenya Navy, Kahawa Garison, Kahawa Barracks, Kahawa Spunners, 75 Artilary, Laikipia and Nanyuki Airbase volleyball Clubs to form Ulinzi, a Swahili word for Defence.

Ulinzi club was a force to reckon with in Kenya Volleyball for years. The club has since produced some of the best Volleyball talents the country like the current national team setter Elisha Aliwa and Sila Makiso despite the many challenges. 

Among the pioneer players who honed their skills at Ulinzi include current Kenya Volleyball Federation first-vice president Martin Makokha, grass root volleyball talent development coach, Juma Walukhu who also ran the defunct Kahawa youth volleyball club, former national under 20 and Kenya Pipeline coach Silvester Kioko, Noah Nyorsok and current KVF national organizing secretary Ismael Chege. 

Walukhu was appointed the first coach but would be laid off due to poor performance and was replaced by Makokha in 1998 until 2003. 

Makokha was again replaced by Simon Wafula. Ulinzi would later be disbanded and stayed out of the cold for sometime before making a comeback  mid 2000s but with no proper functioning technical bench. Sila Makiso acted as a player/coach before Pius Birich took over. 

The army men's best performance is a Silver medal won when Kenya hosted the All Africa Military Games in Nairobi in 2002. They lost in the final to Cameroon. Ulinzi also won the East and Central games between 1994-1997 held in Uganda and Rwanda. 

Interestingly, Ulinzi (KDF) has never won the national title even though they have taken part in all, except the 2016 Kenya Volleyball Federation national play offs. That year, they finished the season in fifth place after losing in a decisive match that would have seen them book a place to the playoff held in Mombasa when they succumbed to Kenya Ports Authority in Eldama Ravine during the last leg of the league regular season.